The Heart’s Reflection: Presenting Kari Turunen from Finland

September 28, 2018 @ 8:00 pm

Our opening concert will introduce Artistic Director candidate Kari Turunen from Finland. His repertoire is rich in music from Northern Europe and North America. Featured are Jaakko Mäntyjärvi’s evocative Canticum calamitatis maritimae about the sinking of the Estonia, and Canadian/Finnish composer Matthew Whittall’s E.E. Cummings setting love is a place. Other works in this eclectic programme are by Josquin, Lassus, Schütz, Finzi, Kreek, Chatman, Elder, Rautavaara, Runestad and Makaroff.

Read more about Kari Turunen

Kari Turunen is the artistic director of the male chorus Akademiska Sångföreningen, Kampin Laulu chamber choir, the choir of the cantors of the Finnish Lutheran Church, Chorus Cantorum Finlandiae, Ensemble Petraloysio and the Spira Ensemble. He has won numerous prizes at national and international festivals with his groups and was named choral conductor of the year in Finland in 2008. Kari studied at the University of Helsinki and the Sibelius Academy and holds a Master’s degree in choral conducting and a Doctorate in Early Music performance practice. Before becoming a full-time conductor he taught choral conducting and was the head of choral activities at the School of Music of the Polytechnic University of Tampere from 2001 to 2011. He is also a founding member of Lumen Valo, a professional vocal ensemble of eight voices. Since the mid-1990s he has been the chairman of the Finnish Choral Directors’ Association is the artistic director of Aurore, an annual Renaissance music festival in Helsinki.